Intelligencia
Intelligencia is the 3rd episode of Ben 10: Odyssey. Summary Ben and Gwen come to a close encounter with Kevin, but fail to defeat him due to Ben having very little knowledge on how his brand new Omnitrix functions. Azmuth, noticing that this is hindering their progress, sends them to a training center in the middle of the Null Void, to help Ben learn how to survive without the Omnitrix, but to also force him to learn how to use it due to the pressure of the circumstances he is in. Plot Ben sprinted across the footpath, dodging a frenzy of people, trying to escape the panic that was happening ahead. Behind him, Gwen was trying her best to keep up. Ben looked from side-to-side, looking for an opening, somewhere that he could run without hitting anybody. Nothing. 'Ugh' he groaned. Ben crouched down as he ran, then leaped into the air, jumping over a group of people and landing perfectly on the road, with both knees bent and one palm on the asphalt. As quick as he had landed, he was up and running again. Gwen peered through the gaps as she ran along, trying to follow her cousin's steps. She watched as he jumped over the people and onto the road. Impressive, he's getting really agile, she thought to herself. She closed her eyes, and then disappeared in a flash of pink smoke. A few seconds later she reappeared a few meters behind Ben, and she was off again, sprinting to keep up, although she was struggling. Her cousin and Kevin must have done a lot of training without her, because he's suddenly gotten extremely fit. Ben's muscles are standing to stand-out more, similar to Kevin's. His stamina has gotten great. It made her sad to think about how close her cousin and boy friend were. They were best friends, and now they were hunting each other. 'Gwen!' Ben yelled, snapping her out of her thoughts. 'What's up?' she called to him, in between breaths. 'Catch my jacket!' Ben slipped the jacket off his arms, allowing it to fall off. It caught in the wind and flew back towards Gwen. She quickly grabbed it in her arms and folded it into a ball, before resuming the chase to keep up with Ben and find her psychotic boyfriend. Ben pressed on, his arms swinging back and forth, one, then the other. He kept his breaths paced and in tune with each thud of his feet hitting the ground. With swift motions, Ben lifted himself onto the hood of a car and swung his legs around. There were cars scattered all over the road from people just stopping running away in terror. Finally, though, as he jumped over car after car, and moved between them, he could see the mess unfolding before him. Kevin stood, towering over everything around, lifting cars and throwing them. On occasion, he'd lift one to his head and tear it apart with the horns coming out from the side of his head. 'Come on, Gwen!' Ben called out, waving to her, but he didn't turn around to see where she was, he just pressed on, increasing his speed. 'I can't keep up!' Gwen yelled out, but her voice came out in a quiet wheeze. She put her hands together and shot a blast of mana, throwing herself into the air and pushing her through. They were starting to get close to Kevin. Extremely close. He could sense their power. Their energy. Without even turning around, Kevin addressed them. 'You've finally come to join me, Gwen? To give me your powers?' He lifted another car. Now that they were closer, they could see what he was doing. He was absorbing the energy from the cars. 'Kevin, stop it!' Gwen called out. 'Please, Kevin. This isn't the real you!' Kevin suddenly snapped and turned around. 'This is the real me! This is what I am, whenever I don't restrict myself. I absorb things, and when I happen to absorb energy, this is what happens. You see, Gwen, this is me naturally. What you are naturally is who you really are, it's not what you act like in front of others. Now, give me your energy, Gwen. Help me realize who I really am' Kevin pleaded. He's gotten smart, manipulative, Ben thought to himself. And then he realized that he had sucked Gwen in. She held her hand out, ready to blast her mana to Kevin. Ben pushed down on the faceplate, trying to choose an alien. Nothing happened. He lifted his hand off and the holographic selection screen appeared, but quickly disappeared, because Ben had released his grip. He hit down and transformed, just as Gwen shot at Kevin. 'NO!' he yelled in a high-pitched voice. Ben jumped in the way of Gwen's blast, stretching his body out as far as he could. But then the weirdest thing happened. He watched as the blast hit his body, and he fell to the floor, cringing in pain. 'I'm Ditto! Wow, even I've gotten a change. I'm all green, and I look like a kitty now. Meow, meow' he said to himself. He quickly spawned two clones. 'You,' he instructed to one of the clones, 'go reabsorb that guy, he doesn't need to feel anymore pain. You,' he said, pointing to the other clone, 'follow me.' The two of them ran over to Gwen and stood in front of her. 'What are you doing?' Ben asked. 'Do you understand what Kevin could do with just one drop of your mana?' the clone asked. 'Do you even-' Ben began. 'I know, I know, I'm sorry. Something just came over me. It's just- look out!' she cried. Ben and the clone turned to find a cosmic disk being shot at them. They quickly jumped high into the air, going over the disk, and landing safely on the floor. 'Gwen, are you okay?' they asked simultaneously. Gwen was lying flat on the floor, avoiding harm. 'I'm fine, but I think you need a guy better suited for battle' she said. 'Nah, we can do this just fine' they said, cockily. The two of them backflipped, creating a clone, then backflipped again, followed by the other clone, creating an extra six clones. They repeated to do this until at least 200 clones stood before them. 'Ready guys?' the two leaders asked. 'YEAH!' they all cried, throwing their hands into the air. 'CHARGE!' the two yelled. They all swarmed Kevin, climbing over his huge body. He swatted them away, but they just continued to clone as they climbed over him, bashing into his body. 'Get. Off. Of. Me. You. Little. Ugh!' he grunted. Kevin flung half of the clones off, but they just created more clones and climbed back on. 'Fine. You know what, this might help, actually.' Sparks suddenly shot out from Kevin's body and wrapped around each clone, including the original - Ben. He started absorbing all of their power. 'Ben!' Gwen shouted. She didn't want Kevin to get access to the entire Omnitrix. She quickly shot out a rope of mana, wrapping Ben in it and pulling him down to the ground. 'Quick, transform again' she said. Ben hit the Omnitrix on his forehead and all the clones flew off of Kevin's body and returned to him. There was a flash of bright green light. 'Snare-Oh!' Snare-Oh shot his bandages out and wrapped them around Kevin's arms. Kevin struggled to free his arms, ripping through a few layers. 'Let go of me, Tennyson!' he yelled. His arms began glowing with energy and the bandages melted away. 'What did you do to me?' Snare-Oh asked. 'That's for me to know, and for you to, ugh! Never find out' he grunted, shooting out a cosmic disk. It sliced through Snare-Oh's body, but Snare-Oh just regenerated himself. He balled his fists together and flung them towards Kevin, throwing out a small gust of wind. The gust flew around Kevin's legs and forced him back a little. 'Well I could make this work for me...' Snare-Oh wrapped his arms around his torso and began spinning in circles, as fast as he could. Eventually he began to form himself into a tornado. Snare-Oh positioned his body so that he flew right into Kevin and wrapped himself around Kevin's legs. 'Get, get off me, Tennyson! Whoa!' he yelled, as the wind lifted him off the ground and forced him down. Snare-Oh slowed himself and stumbled around, regaining his position. Kevin swung his arms around, trying to grab a hold of Snare-Oh. 'Can't get me' he taunted, jumping over and ducking under the swiping arm. Snare-Oh ran towards one of the only intact buildings and began to run upright along the wall. 'Catch me, Kevin, catch me' he teased. Kevin's horns began to shimmer with energy and electricity. And then it all moved down through his head and into his mouth, where Kevin spat it out at Snare-Oh. 'Ai!' he screamed, jumping off the wall. Snare-Oh reshaped his body to become a pterodactyl and he flew down at Kevin, spinning round and round to form another tornado. 'Get out of it, Tennyson!' Kevin growled, not in the mood to be hit by another tornado. He threw his hand into the air, charged with energy, and shot out an electrified cosmic ray. It slammed into Snare-Oh, but the electricity just swirled around and around within the tornado, not nearing Snare-Oh's body at all. 'Incoming!' Snare-Oh shouted as he emerged from the ray. He slammed into Kevin's body, shocking him with the electricity that was floating around Snare-Oh. The tornado slowly calmed, revealing Snare-Oh, still in the form of a bandaged pterodactyl. He uwrapped himself and spread his body over Kevin's completely concealing him within bandages. 'Gwen, wrap your mana around me and throw us into the air' Snare-Oh instructed to Gwen. 'As soon as we get into the air, I'll unwrap from Kevin's body.' 'Okay, just make sure you say if you're uncomfortable. I'll let go as soon as you say something' Gwen assured. She prepared to grab them with her mana, when Snare-Oh suddenly began screaming in pain. Bolts of electricity surged through him, forcing him to unwrap and shrivel up into a pile on the floor. 'Ben!' Gwen cried. Meanwhile, Kevin's body had already begun to change. His wrists became covered in bandages, along with his neck and horns. His stomach grew hollow, with a compartment for him to place power-intensifying objects. 'I will win, Tennyson. Mark my words' he hissed. Then, he teleported away. Gwen ran over to her cousin, lying in a pile of crispy bandages. 'Ben! Ben, speak to me!' she begged. There was a flash of green light and Ben transformed back to normal. 'He's taking over me. He's stealing my aliens.' 'No he's not-' Gwen began. 'Yes, he is' a voice cut in. The two looked up. 'Azmuth' Ben gasped, astonished. 'Tennyson. I gave you that brand new Omnitrix, I even added the Evolutionary Function to it, something that I hate, and yet, you refuse to adapt. I need to know that I have left my most powerful creation in the right hands, Tennyson, but I also need to know you'll be able to survive without it. I will be sending you two to the Null Void. There is a training course being run there by the toughest of the tough security guards. it is supposed to be like a sort of "audition" for people who would like to become guardians of Incarcecon, but it'll do you two just fine. This course should teach you, Ben, how to work under pressure without the Omnitrix, but it should also force you to learn how it works. I bid you two good luck and good fortune.' With that, Azmuth teleported away. And a few seconds later, Ben and Gwen were gone too. The two reappeared in the middle of the Null Void, floating around in Plumbers gear. 'How did Azmuth put the Plumbers suits on us?' Gwen asked. 'I stopped asking myself "how did he" questions about Azmuth a long time ago' Ben responded. He pressed down on the Omnitrix, trying to dial in a flyer. 'Damnit! I still can't work this thing.' 'Maybe it wasn't the best idea for Azmuth to send us in here with you not knowing how that thing works. You rely on it when you're in battle. Well, most of the times, anyway. And if you can't work it, then there's a strong possibility you won't be coming back out of here.' 'Gwen, don't worry about Azmuth. He knows what he's doing. He knows that if I try, I can figure out how this thing works, that's why he's putting me into the roughest situation he can think of, because then I'll have to learn how to use it.' 'I don't know, I still don't trust it, Ben.' 'Whatever, just get ready to find where we're supposed to go' Ben mumbled, fiddling around with the Omnitrix. He lifted his finger and the faceplate lifted. 'Please give me Jetray' he begged. Then he pressed down on the faceplate and transformed. 'Cannonbolt! Oh, screw you, Omnitrix.' He activated the jetpacks on his suit and prepared to fly off. 'Lucky this suit adjusts to my transformations. Azmuth thought ahead.' 'Come on, Ben!' Gwen called out, already flying far ahead of him. By the time they found the training grounds, the Omnitrix had already timed out and Ben was back in his regular form. The training grounds were right on the edge of Incarcecon. They slowly landed on the edge and entered the group of guards in training. There was an alien man standing at the front of the group, giving a speech, did not stop to acknowledge their entry. He was orange in color, tall and solid, with three bulging eyes and four arms. He wore a hat that reminded Ben of a park ranger, and wore black and white rings around his shoulders, along with white pants and more black and white rings around his ankles. 'Uh, hello' Ben said, sticking his hand into the air. 'Ben 10 here. You know, greatest hero, saved the Universe a few times?' The man stopped now and slowly, and angrily, turned to face the two. 'Did I address you, 10?' he asked. 'That's Ben. Ben 10' Ben corrected. The man's face began to glow bright red, and his eyes bulged out. 'DID I ADDRESS YOU, 10?' he screamed. Ben screwed up his face. A terrible smell wafted over, most likely originating from the man's mouth. 'No, but I just wanted to apologize for arriving late.' The mans face began turning a dark pink. 'I DON'T CARE IF YOU WANTED TO APOLOGIZE, OR IF YOU WERE GOING TO SAVE MY LIFE. IF I DO NOT ADDRESS YOU, YOU DO NOT SPEAK. IS THAT CLEAR?' he yelled. Ben didn't answer. 'I JUST ADDRESSED YOU, NOW ANSWER ME!' 'Yes, that is clear' Ben answered without any enthusiasm. 'SIR, YES THAT IS CLEAR, SIR, WOULD BE MUCH BETTER!' Ben turned around and took in a whiff of fresh air. 'Sir, yes, it's clear, sir' Ben repeated. 'Better' the man said calmly. His face slowly returned to an orange color, his eyes deflating and the scent that he had produced began to become pleasant. 'Now, stand at the back of the group until I address you.' Ben slowly walked to the back, dumbfounded by what just happened. 'Did you get a whiff of his breath?' Gwen asked Ben, holding her nose. 'STOP TALKING!' he shouted, suddenly becoming bright purple, and sending a blast of vile breath in Gwen's direction. She began gagging on the smell. 'As I was saying, I'm Major Mijora, you are all here to participate in a Training Course to become Guards of Incarcecon. I am going to split you into three teams; Impossible, Xennia, and Intelligencia. Your goal is to knock every single one of your opponents unconcious, until it is only you and your team left standing, or, until there is only one person from each team standing. In that case, every person left standing will automatically be admitted as a Guard. Everyone who has been defeated will be graded and notified of their results. Now, it's time to split you all up; Team Impossible! Zanya, Poluti, Tyoa, Qznxa, Trflam, and Pluto; Xennia: Wertaz, Plantgi, Gfrat, Plonkae, Yuio, and Pityra; and last but not least, Intelligencia: Trufna, Gwen, Qzntyxa, Ben, and me.' Ben and Gwen looked at each other in amazement. They couldn't believe what their tasks were, and what was more, they were put onto a team with less members than the others. 'Now,' Major Mijora said, snapping his fingers. Everyone's uniforms became a certain color; Team Impossible's purple, Xennia Cyan, and Intelligencia yellow. 'In a matter of seconds, everyone will be teleported away into separate team meeting rooms. From then, you will hear a horn which will announce the commencement of the games. I expect it to last a maximum of half-an-hour. After each person is knocked unconscious, a box will wrap around their bodys and carry them away to safety, so just continue on with the game after each win. Bye now.' Ben, Gwen, Trufna, Qzntyxa and Major Mijora were all teleported into an empty square room. The walls were painted yellow. 'Okay, everyone, before these games start, we ought to take the time to introduce ourselves and get familiar with each other' Major Mijora announced. He stood up. 'I am an Ectokzurian. My species are capable of willingly entering a rage, which then triggers a scent glan within our bodies that can be potentially fatal when inhaled. So, just so everyone knows, I am capable of shooting out poison breath that can knock people out in an instant. It'll be super helpful in our game.' He stepped back. A round purple alien with tentacles shooting out all over its body stood up. 'I'm Qzntyxa. I am capable of releasing a pod of goo from my body which will stick to the enemies, stick them into the ground and render them incapable of battle.' Trufna then stood up to the plate. He was a tiny alien, no larger than Jury Rigg. He had long, thin tusks of hair sticking out from the side of his body, from his hips all the way up to his arms. 'I'm Trufna,' he announced in a surprisingly deep voice, 'I can grow as many arms as I like, which will make me super tough. I can smash stuff. With all my arms.' Then he walked away. Gwen stood up to the plate. 'I'm Gwen, I'm an Anodite, but I live on Earth,' she announced. Everyone gasped at the mention of an Anodite. 'I can produce energy beams from mana and cast spells.' It was Ben's turn to introduce himself. 'I'm Ben, I'm a whole bunch of different aliens. Possibly you,' he pointed to Major Mijora, 'or even you or you. I've got the Omnitrix, the most powerful weapon in the known universe, so winning this should be a piece of ca-' there was a loud horn. 'The games have started, get going!' Major Mijora demanded. Everyone ran from the room, armed with nothing but their bare hands. Almost immediately after exiting their room, they entered a room full of small piranha-like aliens. Major Mijora immediately began raging, his skin becoming bright blue with anger, and he yelled as loudly as he could. His breath, so vile, actually came out of his mouth as a cloud. It spread over the entirety of the aliens and they all flopped down, motionless. Ben wasn't sure if they were dead, or just unconscious, but he didn't want to find out. Major Mijora's color became orange again and Ben took a breath in. There was no trace of a bad smell, just a sweet aroma. 'Lets get moving!' Major Mijora yelled. They all ran through to the next room, which led to an open courtyard. 'Where to next?' Gwen asked, catching up behind Ben. 'Nowhere, now we wait for them all to come and find us' he said. 'What?' Ben asked, turning to Major Mijora. 'Is this a joke?' he demanded. 'Turn around and you'll see.' Ben turned around to find members from the other two teams running out from doors, entering the courtyard. They were both down one member. He wondered how bad the obstacle in their rooms were, or whether they had to face the same ones. 'Gwen, up in the air' Ben shouted. He ran over to her and she lifted them into the air on a mana platform. 'What are we going to do?' he asked her. 'I'll shield you, you figure out how to work that thing' Gwen said, closing them in a box of mana. 'Gwen, I can't just work it out like that!' Ben yelled. 'Well it's either that or we get the life beaten out of us. Your choice.' Ben sighed. 'We can do it, we've beaten tougher people.' 'With you using the Omnitrix' Gwen reminded. 'Meh' Ben shrugged. Gwen released them from their shield and Ben ran to fight. He flung himself into one of the opponents from Impossible. They fell to the ground and Ben began pounding them in the face. 'Get off me!' they yelled, lifting Ben off, and throwing him away. He landed on the ground with an "oof," and was then approached by three members of Xennia. 'Hey there, Omnitrix boy' one taunted. 'Savior of the universe' another laughed. They stepped in a little closer. 'My hero!' They took another step closer, as Ben began fiddling with the Omnitrix. Okay, Azmuth, you were right. I've got it somewhere in my head, I just don't know where. If I can just figure out what activates this thing, then I'll be all fine. It'll just be a smooth algorithm after that Ben thought to himself. 'Go!' one of the three yelled, and they all pounced. Within a milli-second, Ben pressed his finger to the center of the Omnitrix and the holographic faceplate appeared. He acknowledged the alien faces, but couldn't recognize a single one, so he just transformed, just as the enemies landed on him. 'Get. Off me!' he yelled, throwing everyone off of him as Armodrillo. They were flung all around the place and the earth shook beneath them. 'So,' they began to taunt, 'little human has figured out how to use his little watch, has he?' She inched closer to him. Armodrillo could see that her arms were long, thin and sharp. Sharp enough to cut through his body. He needed to keep his distance. 'That's right' he acknowledged her. 'Still, I think maybe you'd be better off giving it to one of us, you know? We'd put it to much better use. I'd put it to much better use...' then she jumped. Her arm swung back, and then she thrusted it forward, ready to slice through Armodrillo's tough armor. 'BEN!' Gwen screamed, creating a mana wall between the two, but it wasn't strong enough to stop her sharp arms. And then they were standing back where they had battled Kevin. Where he absorbed Ben's Omnitrix. Where Azmuth had last spoken to them before sending them off to the Null Void. Armodrillo flashed green and he collapsed to the ground as Ben. 'Bravo' Azmuth clapped. Ben looked up at him with anger. 'You had to send us there? Of all the places where we would have to fight for our lives, you had to send us there!' Ben yelled. 'I did. You see, if I hadn't, you wouldn't have been able to learn how to master the Omnitrix.' 'Oh really? What was so special about me being there that made me learn how to do it? You think that if I had been placed somewhere else I wouldn't have realized, "oh wow, I'm about to be killed?" ' 'Oh, but, Ben,' Azmuth paused. 'Did you really acknowledge that you were about to die, and then figure out how to work the Omnitrix?' 'Yeah, pretty much' Ben argued. 'Oh, but there was something else that you were thinking about that whole time, wasn't there? Someone else.' 'Kevin'Ben realized. 'That's right. That entire time, you began to realize just what Kevin had to endure each and every day when he was in the Null Void, and you began to understand that if you didn't master the Omnitrix in time to stop Kevin and change him back to normal, he would either be killed, or captured and returned to the Null Void to be treated that way. And you didn't want that, did you?' 'No,' Ben shook his head. 'That is exactly why I needed to put you there, Benjamin. To learn to empathize with your friends, no matter what has overcome them. I knew that it would be the only thing to truly make you figure out the way to use the Omnitrix.' Ben stood up and placed his finger to the center of the faceplate. 'For Kevin' he said, as the holograms moved around. Gwen stood. 'For Kevin' she nodded, her hands glowing with a bright purple aura, rather than her usual mana. Azmuth nodded. 'For Kevin.' Major Events *Ditto, Snare-Oh and Armodrillo are used for the first time in the series. Characters *Ben Tennyson *Gwen Tennyson *Azmuth *Major Mijora Training Course Members *Zanya *Poluti *Tyoa *Qznxa *Trflam *Pluto *Wertaz *Plantgi *Gfrat *Plonkae *Yuio *Pityra *Trufna *Qzntyxa Villains *Kevin Levin Aliens *Ditto *Snare-Oh *Cannonbolt *Armodrillo Category:Episodes